Process of extracting sugar from low-grade molasses.



.IED srnrns IPA PROCESS OF-EXTRACTING SUGAR FROM LOW-GRADE MOLASSES.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern;-

Beitknown that I, JOHN NORMAN SPEN- CERWIIJLIAMS, residing at Honolulu, 1n the county of Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes for Extracting Sugar from Low-Grade l/Iolasses; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a process for extracting sugar from low grade molasses. Its object is to provide a process for the further extraction of crystallized sugar from low grade or waste molasses from which the crystallizable sugar has been previously extracted as far as ispossible by the ordinary method of boiling, crystallizing and drying in centrifugal machines.

The invention contemplates a process for the recovery of sugar from waste molasses comprising, boiling the molasses to substantially a complete absence of water, storing the molasses so boiled in small containers for solidifying and graining, comminuting said molasses so boiled and solidified and grained by trituration with sold water in a suitable pugmill kept at a low temperature, and the extraction of sugar from the molasses thus treated by means of a centrifugal separator, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

In carrying out the process, ordinary waste molasses of a true purity of from say 35% or lower to 50% or higher is boiled in an ordinary vacuum apparatus to complete or nearly complete absence of water, and is then run into small containers, such as barrels which will hold from two hundred to five hundred pounds of molasses. These filled containers are set aside to permit solidification, which occurs within a few hours, and are allowed thereafter to stand in a cool and well ventilated place for a sufliciently extended period, say from two to six months or more. During this period of storage a fine crystal makes its appearance, and crystallization goes on in this fine almost microscopic form until all or nearly all the sucrose in the waste molasses has assumed the crystal form or state. The mass, however, is solid, and to remove the crystals from this solid mass, recourse is had to a pugmill kept at a'low temperature,

.Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented-Mar. in, 191s.

Application 'iue'anovember 28, 1914. Serial at. 874,430.

which takes the small packages of solidified molasses, comminutes them with the addition of a small quantity of cold watehand themass is reduced to a massecuite or magma which will flow. This is kept cool or at a low temperature and is then passed into a centrifugal separator having an imperforate or solid shell, in which machine the grain so formed in the solidified molasses'being of a greater specific gravity than the surrounding glucose, impurities, etc., is thrown to the shell of the separator, while the liquid is discharged from the interior in the usual manner. My process, therefore, may be divided into four steps: 1st, the boiling of the waste molasses to substantially a complete absence of water; 2nd, storing in small containers the molasses so boiled to permit solidifying and graining; 3rd, the comminuting of said molasses, so boiled and solidified and grained, in a suitable pugmill with cold water, or equivalent liquid, in such quantity and such temperature that while the mass will be made fluid the grain will not melt; and 4th, the extraction of this sugar, so grained in said molasses and triturated in said pugmill kept at a low temperature, in a centrifugal machine of suitable design, after which the sugar so recovered is prepared for market in the usual Way. Should any sucrose for any reason have failed to crystallize during the first operation, the liquid residues thrown off from the centrifugal separator may be boiled again to an absence of water or nearly so, and passed through the same operations of solidifying, graining, comminuting and separating as above described, until a complete extraction of sucrose is effected.

I claim:

1. The process of recovering sugar from waste molasses, comprising boiling the molasses to substantially a complete absence of water, storing the molasses so boiled to permit solidification and graining, comminuting the solidified and grained molasses with liquid which will not dissolve the grained sugar in the same, and then extracting the sugar from the molasses thus treated.

2. The process for the recovery of sugar from waste molasses comprising, boiling the molasses to substantially a complete absence of water, storing in small containers the molasses so boiled to permit solidification and graining, comminuting said molasses so boiled and solidified and grainedby tritura= 1 10 of Water, permitting the molasses so boiled to solidify the grain, comminuting the solidified and grained molasses With liquid and then extracting the sugar from the molasses thus treated.

. 'In testimonyrwhereof I affix my signature, 15

in presence of two Witnesses. I

JOHN NORMAN SPENCER WILLIAMS.

'Witnesses: 4 7

ADAM LINDSAY, L. BOHNENBERG.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, 'by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents.

7 Washington, D; 0." 

